


Changes

by Not From Stars (Shadowcat)



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:01:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Not%20From%20Stars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a vampire means watching a lot of things change while you stay the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [torigates](https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/gifts).



Caroline Forbes had had a lot of time to get used to the way things changed and the way time moved.

It had been hard to deal with at first because she didn't like watching the changes in her friends while knowing that she hadn't changed at all. Well, she hadn't changed on the outside. She still looked the same way she had when she was changed into this creature she had become.

Elena and Bonnie were still her best friends, sisters like they had been most of her life. However, someone else also became a stable point in her life. After what had happened, she never expected that she would end up being friends with Stefan Salvatore. After all, it was because of him and her brother that all of this had happened. She had never planned on being friends with him after what Katherine did.

But there were things she didn't understand, and there were questions she needed the answers for. There was no way in hell she would approach Damon, so it was Stefan that ended up getting the late night or early morning calls when she was freaking out because she just didn't _understand_.

Before any of them knew it, Caroline and Stefan had become almost inseperable and Caroline began to wonder how she had ever been jealous of Elena. When she was with Stefan, she could tell how much he loved Elena, and she was good with that. There were too many other issues for them to deal with and she wasn't interested in trying to wind up with a boyfriend for all of eternity.

Strange, wasn't it? It too her life being ripped away from her to realize that she could be pretty damn strong standing on her own without a guy.

So she adapted, and she learned, and she made her own place in the new relationships between her and her friends. She was as patient as she had ever been, but she was managing to make a sort of sense of the way everything had changed.

But sometimes, time passes a lot quicker than you would expect. And sometimes, things change and you realize that you've missed these changes because you are still the same.

The first sign of this was when Caroline had been traveling for awhile and she came back to Mystic Falls for the wedding of Bonnie and Jeremy. When had that happened? She knew that they were seeing each other, but when did the two of them both finish college and decide that they wanted to get married?

She stood up at the front of the gathering with Elena and the two of them watched Bonnie being escorted up the aisle by her Alaric, her father having passed away a couple of years before. Caroline could see how time was changing one of her best friends and she didn't like it. There were wrinkles and shadows around Bonnie's eyes and she wondered when those had appeared.

Or had they always been there and she just had never noticed because she was caught up in her own world and her own life?

She was still thinking about this when Stefan came up to her at the reception.

"You look like you're brooding," he murmured quietly to her as he watched their friends.

"I don't brood," she retorted. "That's your job, remember?"

"What's wrong?"

"When did everything start changing?"

"Things have always been changing, Caroline. That's just the way it is."

"But they're not supposed to," she said stubbornly. "These are my friends and we were supposed to grow old and still do fabulous things together."

Stefan sighed and turned his head to look at her. "Things changed when Katherine killed you, Caroline, you know that. I told you that it would happen and that you would never change on the outside. Your looks will only change as much as you alter them, but you will never change."

Caroline made some kind of sound and hurried away from him. She didn't want to talk about this with him any more and she was glad that he didn't try to follow her.

After that, she tried so hard to keep track of what was going on and to keep the fact that she wasn't changing hidden. She had to be more careful about spending time with her friends because they would all be in danger if someone realized that she wasn't changing and everyone else was.

She started keeping a journal because things were changing more than she wanted to accept. Damon laughed at her for it and she threw him across a room. Things were tense between them no matter what happened, but she pretended that she didn't give a damn about him.

She did care, but she was trying to keep a tight rein on the things that were beyond her control. She watched the years pass and she watched governments come and go. History had never been her favorite thing, but now she found herself witnessing it and living it.

Damon drifted away from them about ten years after her change had happened, or maybe it was fifteen. She didn't care that he was gone because that was when Elena was taken from them. It was like without Elena to keep them tied together, Damon wanted nothing more to do with them.

Caroline was fine with that. Damon didn't understand and he would never understand. It was Stefan that held her when they got the news and it was Stefan that comforted her as she mourned.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way," she raged. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!"

"I know," he tried to soothe her. "I know."

"YOU DON'T KNOW!" Caroline finally screamed at him. "You have an idea but you don't know! We had plans! We were going to be friends forever and always be together! When you became like this, you had Damon with you! I don't have anybody and the more that things change the more I realize I'm always going to be alone in this life!"

Stefan shook his head. "You're not alone, Caroline. You'll always have me. I'm not going to abandon you."

"You're not Elena and you're not Bonnie." She shook her head. "You can't replace them."

Stefan nodded and reached for her hand to squeeze it. "I can't replace them and I don't want to. However, I am your friend and I will always be your friend. That's not something you ever have to worry about."

"Yeah, and how long is that going to last?"

"Always," he assured her. "So many things will change, but that will never be one of them."


End file.
